Quick response (qr) code based test data embedding and transmission

ABSTRACT

In some examples, QR code based test data embedding and transmission may include obtaining, by a test data analyzer that is executed by at least one hardware processor, test data based on operation of a test device to measure a parameter associated with an optical fiber. Based on an analysis of the test data, a report that includes the test data may be generated. A quick response (QR) code generator that is executed by the at least one hardware processor may compress the report that includes the test data to generate a compressed report. The QR code generator may generate, based on an analysis of the compressed report, a QR code that includes the compressed report. A display generator that is executed by the at least one hardware processor may generate a display of the QR code that includes the compressed report.

BACKGROUND

A test device such as a power meter, an optical time domainreflectometer (OTDR), and other such test devices may utilize a varietyof techniques to ascertain data. For example, an OTDR may characterizean optical fiber by injecting a series of optical pulses into theoptical fiber. The OTDR may extract light that is scattered or reflectedback from different points along the optical fiber. The scattered orreflected light may be utilized to characterize the optical fiber. Dataassociated with the characterization of the optical fiber may betransmitted to a variety of sources. For example, the data may betransmitted to a smartphone, a tablet, a laptop, and other such devices,or via a mobile device to a data management system situated in thecloud.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Features of the present disclosure are illustrated by way of example andnot limited in the following figure(s), in which like numerals indicatelike elements, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an architectural layout of a quick response (QR) codebased test data embedding and transmission system in accordance with anexample of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 2-5 illustrate an example of operation of the QR code based testdata embedding and transmission system of FIG. 1 in accordance with anexample of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 6A and 6B illustrate an example of operation of the QR code basedtest data embedding and transmission system of FIG. 1 for a power meterin accordance with an example of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 7A and 7B illustrate an example of operation of the QR code basedtest data embedding and transmission system of FIG. 1 for an OTDR inaccordance with an example of the present disclosure;

FIG. 8 illustrates an example block diagram for QR code based test dataembedding and transmission in accordance with an example of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 9 illustrates a flowchart of an example method for QR code basedtest data embedding and transmission in accordance with an example ofthe present disclosure; and

FIG. 10 illustrates a further example block diagram for QR code basedtest data embedding and transmission in accordance with another exampleof the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

For simplicity and illustrative purposes, the present disclosure isdescribed by referring mainly to examples. In the following description,numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the present disclosure. It will be readily apparenthowever, that the present disclosure may be practiced without limitationto these specific details. In other instances, some methods andstructures have not been described in detail so as not to unnecessarilyobscure the present disclosure.

Throughout the present disclosure, the terms “a” and “an” are intendedto denote at least one of a particular element. As used herein, the term“includes” means includes but not limited to, the term “including” meansincluding but not limited to. The term “based on” means based at leastin part on.

QR code based test data embedding and transmission systems, methods forQR code based test data embedding and transmission, and non-transitorycomputer readable media for QR code based test data embedding andtransmission are disclosed herein. The systems, methods, andnon-transitory computer readable media disclosed herein provide formeasurement of values such as power, distance, loss, etc. by a testdevice, and generation of test results by the test device, such as apower meter, an OTDR, etc. According to examples disclosed herein, thesystems, methods, and non-transitory computer readable media may beimplemented in or include a test device that may generate a QR code, andinclude the test results in the QR code. For example, the test resultsmay be compressed and encrypted for inclusion in the QR code. Accordingto examples disclosed herein, the systems, methods, and non-transitorycomputer readable media may be implemented in or include a receivingdevice such as a phone, tablet, etc., that may read the QR code,decompress and decrypt the test results, and the test results may betransmitted or otherwise utilized as needed. According to examplesdisclosed herein, the systems, methods, and non-transitory computerreadable media disclosed herein may provide for secure and efficienttransmission of test data from a test device to other devices.

Test devices such as power meters, OTDRs, and other such test devicesmay utilize a variety of techniques to ascertain data (e.g., test data),and to transmit the test data to a receiving device. For example, inorder to transmit the test data from a test device to a receivingdevice, a wired or wireless connection may be implemented by the testdevice to communicate with the receiving device such as a smart phone, atablet, a laptop, etc. In this regard, in some cases, it is technicallychallenging to implement a wired or wireless connection between the testdevice and the receiving device to which test data is to be transmitted.For example, with respect to a wired connection, it may be technicallychallenging to connect an appropriate wire to a connection port of atest device and the receiving device to which test data is to betransmitted. For example, the receiving device may not include acomplementary port for the wired connection. With respect to a wirelessconnection, it may be technically challenging to implement a wirelessconnection between a test device and a receiving device to which testdata is to be transmitted. For example, in some cases, a test deviceand/or the receiving device to which test data is to be transmitted maynot include a wireless connection capability. In other examples, testdata transmitted via a wireless connection may be compromised by anunauthorized receiving device based on the utilization of the wirelessconnection. Yet further, in some examples, test data may not beaccurately transmitted via a wireless connection due to intermittentloss of the wireless connection.

The systems, methods, and non-transitory computer readable mediadisclosed herein address at least the aforementioned technicalchallenges by formatting the test data in a QR code. A receiving deviceto which the test data is to be transmitted may scan the QR code toobtain the test data. The test data may be compressed and encrypted asdisclosed herein for efficiency and security purposes.

For the systems, methods, and non-transitory computer readable mediadisclosed herein, the elements of the systems, methods, andnon-transitory computer readable media disclosed herein may be anycombination of hardware and programming to implement the functionalitiesof the respective elements. In some examples described herein, thecombinations of hardware and programming may be implemented in a numberof different ways. For example, the programming for the elements may beprocessor executable instructions stored on a non-transitorymachine-readable storage medium and the hardware for the elements mayinclude a processing resource to execute those instructions. In theseexamples, a computing device implementing such elements may include themachine-readable storage medium storing the instructions and theprocessing resource to execute the instructions, or the machine-readablestorage medium may be separately stored and accessible by the computingdevice and the processing resource. In some examples, some elements maybe implemented in circuitry.

FIG. 1 illustrates an architectural layout of a QR code based test dataembedding and transmission system (hereinafter also referred to as“system 100”) in accordance with an example of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 1, the system 100 may include a test data analyzer 102that is executed by at least one hardware processor (e.g., the hardwareprocessor 802 of FIG. 8, and/or the hardware processor 1004 of FIG. 10),to obtain test data 104 based on operation of a test device 106 tomeasure a parameter associated with an optical fiber 108. The test dataanalyzer 102 may generate, based on an analysis of the test data 104, areport 110 that includes the test data 104.

A QR code generator 112 that is executed by at least one hardwareprocessor (e.g., the hardware processor 802 of FIG. 8, and/or thehardware processor 1004 of FIG. 10) may compress the report 110 thatincludes the test data 104 to generate a compressed report 114. The testdata 104 may be compressed, for example, using “LZMA”(Lempel-Ziv-Markov) compression that provides for no data loss duringthe compression. The QR code generator 112 may generate, based on ananalysis of the compressed report 114, a QR code 116 that includes thecompressed report 114 embedded therein. Since the QR code 116 works withtextual data, the compressed report 114 may be encoded in the QR code116 by utilizing a Base64 encoding technique.

A display generator 118 that is executed by at least one hardwareprocessor (e.g., the hardware processor 802 of FIG. 8, and/or thehardware processor 1004 of FIG. 10) may generate a display 120 of the QRcode 116 that includes the compressed report 114.

According to examples disclosed herein, the test data 104 may betransmitted to a receiving device 122 based on a scan of the QR code 116by the receiving device 122. In this regard, a camera of the receivingdevice 122 may be utilized to scan the QR code 116.

According to examples disclosed herein, the test device 106 may be apower meter to measure the parameter associated with the optical fiber108.

According to examples disclosed herein, the test device 106 may includean optical time domain reflectometer (OTDR) to measure the parameterassociated with the optical fiber 108.

According to examples disclosed herein, the report 110 may include aJavaScript Object Notation (JSON) report. Other types of reports mayinclude .pdf, .txt, and other such report formats.

According to examples disclosed herein, the QR code generator 112 maycompress the report 110 that includes the test data 104 to generate thecompressed report 114 by formatting the report in a specified format forinclusion in the QR code 116.

According to examples disclosed herein, the QR code generator 112 mayformat the report 110 in the specified format for inclusion in the QRcode 116 by compressing the report 110 from a specified number of bytesto a reduced number of bytes to generate the compressed report 114. Forexample, the report 110 may be compressed from a specified number ofbytes (e.g., 5124 bytes) to a reduced number of bytes (e.g., 1390 bytes,based on LZMA compression) to generate the compressed report 114. The QRcode generator 112 may convert the compressed report 114 to a specifiedbase format to generate a converted report. For example, the QR codegenerator 112 may convert the compressed report 114 to a Base64 baseformat (e.g., 1881 bytes) to generate a converted report. Further, theQR code generator 112 may generate the QR code 116 (e.g., QR CodeVersion 40 (from 1852 to 4296 bytes)) based on the converted report.

According to examples disclosed herein, the QR code generator 112 maygenerate, based on the analysis of the compressed report 114, the QRcode 116 that includes the compressed report 114 by encrypting the testdata 104 in the compressed report 114, and generating, based on theanalysis of the compressed report 114 that includes the encrypted testdata, the QR code 116 that includes the compressed report 114. Forexample, the QR code generator 112 may utilize a symmetric key algorithmfor encrypting the test data 104.

The system 100 (part of which may be implemented in the receiving device122) may further include a QR code reader 124 that is executed by atleast one hardware processor (e.g., similar to the hardware processor802 of FIG. 8, and/or the hardware processor 1004 of FIG. 10) to read,from the test device 106, the QR code 116 displayed on the display 120of the test device 106.

A test data extractor 126 that is executed by at least one hardwareprocessor (e.g., similar to the hardware processor 802 of FIG. 8, and/orthe hardware processor 1004 of FIG. 10) may extract, from the QR code116, the test data 104 obtained by the test device 106 for measurementof a parameter associated with the optical fiber 108. For example, acamera of the receiving device 122 may be utilized to scan the QR code116, and to read the textual information embedded in the QR code 116.

According to examples disclosed herein, the test data extractor 126 mayextract, from the QR code 116, the test data 104 obtained by the testdevice 106 for measurement of the parameter associated with the opticalfiber 108 by decompressing the test data 104 included in the QR code 116to generate a decompressed report 128 that includes the test data 104.

According to examples disclosed herein, the test data extractor 126 mayextract, from the QR code 116, the test data 104 obtained by the testdevice 106 for measurement of the parameter associated with the opticalfiber 108 by decrypting the decompressed report to extract the test data104 included in the QR code 116. In this regard, a symmetric keyalgorithm may be used to decrypt the data embedded in the QR code 116.Further, the decrypted data may be decoded by utilizing a Base64decoding technique, and decompressed by utilizing a decompressiontechnique, such as LZMA.

Operation of the system 100 is described in further detail withreference to FIGS. 1-7.

FIGS. 2-5 illustrate an example of operation of the system 100 inaccordance with an example of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 2, the test device 106 may measure a parameterassociated with an optical fiber 108. For example, for a test devicethat includes a power meter, the parameter may include a wavelength(e.g., 1550 nm) and a noise (e.g., −11.79 dBm) associated with anoptical fiber 108.

Referring to FIG. 3, the QR code generator 112 may compress the report110 that includes the test data 104 to generate a compressed report 114.The OR code generator 112 may generate, based on an analysis of thecompressed report 114, a QR code 116 that includes the compressed report114. Further, the display generator 118 may generate a display 120 ofthe QR code 116 that includes the compressed report 114.

Referring to FIG. 4, with respect to the receiving device 122, the QRcode reader 124 may read, from the test device 106, the QR code 116displayed on the display 120 of the test device 106. For example, aspecified application on the receiving device 122 may be invoked toread, from the test device 106, the QR code 116 displayed on the display120 of the test device 106. In this regard, camera scanning or othersuch functionality of the receiving device 122 may be utilized to readthe OR code 116.

Referring to FIG. 5, the test data extractor 126 may extract, from theOR code 116, the test data 104 obtained by the test device 106 formeasurement of a parameter associated with the optical fiber 108. Forexample, the specified application on the receiving device 122 that isinvoked to read, from the test device 106, the QR code, may also beinvoked to display the test data 104. In this regard, the specifiedapplication may also include functionality to forward the test data toanother remote application, a cloud environment, or another suchlocation, for example, in formats such as .pdf, .csv, .xml, .sor, etc.

FIGS. 6A and 6B illustrate an example of operation of the system 100 fora power meter in accordance with an example of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 6A, for the test device 106, which may be a powermeter, the test data analyzer 102 may generate, based on an analysis ofthe test data 104, a report 110 that includes the test data 104. Anexample of the report 110 is shown in FIG. 6B. As shown in FIG. 6B, thereport 110 may include values such as the test data 104 at 600, theoptical fiber number at 602 for the optical fiber 108, etc.

Further, as shown in FIG. 6A, for the QR code 116, the test dataextractor 126 may extract, from the QR code 116, the test data 104obtained by the test device 106 for measurement of a parameterassociated with the optical fiber 108.

FIGS. 7A and 7B illustrate an example of operation of the system 100 foran OTDR in accordance with an example of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 7A, the test device 106, which may be an OTDR, maymeasure parameters such as distance along the optical fiber, loss dB,reflectance dB, slope, etc., as shown at 700 with respect to an opticalfiber. The test data analyzer 102 may generate, based on an analysis ofthe test data 104, a report 110 that includes the test data 104. Anexample of the report 110 is shown in FIG. 7B. The report 110 mayinclude all relevant data to the measurement, such as, locationinformation, file naming information, technician identifier, test dataresults for all passive optical elements such as splices, connectors,multiplexers, splitters, couplers, and impairments such as macro-bendingfor each measured signal and/or wavelengths. The metadata section may beused by a data management system.

In order to generate the QR code 116, the QR code generator 112 maycompress the report 110 that includes the test data 104 to generate thecompressed report 114. The QR code generator 112 may generate, based onan analysis of the compressed report 114, a QR code 116 that includesthe compressed report 114. In this regard, the QR code generator 112 maycompress the report 110 that includes the test data 104 to generate thecompressed report 114 by formatting the report in a specified format(e.g., a .json file format) for inclusion in the QR code 116. Forexample, the QR code generator 112 may format the report 110 in thespecified format for inclusion in the QR code 116 by compressing thereport 110 (e.g., a .json report) from a specified number of bytes(e.g., 5124 bytes) to a reduced number of bytes (e.g., 1390 bytes) togenerate the compressed report 114. The QR code generator 112 mayconvert the compressed report 114 to a specified base format (e.g.,base64 (1881 bytes)) to generate a converted report. Further, the QRcode generator 112 may generate the QR code 116 (e.g., QR Code Version40 (from 1852 to 4296 bytes)) based on the converted report.

FIGS. 8-10 respectively illustrate an example block diagram 800, aflowchart of an example method 900, and a further example block diagram1000 for QR code based test data embedding and transmission, accordingto examples. The block diagram 800, the method 90, and the block diagram1000 may be implemented on the system 100 described above with referenceto FIG. 1 by way of example and not of limitation. The block diagram800, the method 900, and the block diagram 1000 may be practiced inother systems. In addition to showing the block diagram 800, FIG. 8shows hardware of the system 100 that may execute the instructions ofthe block diagram 800. The hardware may include a processor 802, and amemory 804 storing machine readable instructions that when executed bythe processor cause the processor to perform the instructions of theblock diagram 800. The memory 804 may represent a non-transitorycomputer readable medium. FIG. 9 may represent an example method for QRcode based test data embedding and transmission, and the steps of themethod. FIG. 10 may represent a non-transitory computer readable medium1002 having stored thereon machine readable instructions to provide QRcode based test data embedding and transmission according to an example.The machine readable instructions, when executed, cause a processor 1004to perform the instructions of the block diagram 1000 also shown in FIG.10.

The processor 802 of FIG. 8 and/or the processor 1004 of FIG. 10 mayinclude a single or multiple processors or other hardware processingcircuit, to execute the methods, functions and other processes describedherein. These methods, functions and other processes may be embodied asmachine readable instructions stored on a computer readable medium,which may be non-transitory (e.g., the non-transitory computer readablemedium 1002 of FIG. 10), such as hardware storage devices (e.g., RAM(random access memory), ROM (read only memory), EPROM (erasable,programmable ROM), EEPROM (electrically erasable, programmable ROM),hard drives, and flash memory). The memory 804 may include a RAM, wherethe machine readable instructions and data for a processor may resideduring runtime.

Referring to FIGS. 1-8, and particularly to the block diagram 800 shownin FIG. 8, the memory 804 may include instructions 806 to obtain testdata 104 based on operation of a test device 106 to measure a parameterassociated with an optical fiber 108.

The processor 802 may fetch, decode, and execute the instructions 808 togenerate, based on an analysis of the test data 104, a report 110 thatincludes the test data 104.

The processor 802 may fetch, decode, and execute the instructions 810 tocompress the report 110 that includes the test data 104 to generate acompressed report 114.

The processor 802 may fetch, decode, and execute the instructions 812 togenerate, based on an analysis of the compressed report 114, a QR code116 that includes the compressed report 114.

The processor 802 may fetch, decode, and execute the instructions 814 togenerate a display 120 of the QR code 116 that includes the compressedreport 114.

Referring to FIGS. 1-7 and 9, and particularly FIG. 9, for the method900, at block 902, the method may include obtaining, by at least onehardware processor, test data 104 based on operation of a test device106 to measure a parameter associated with an optical fiber 108.

At block 904, the method may include generating, by the at least onehardware processor, based on an analysis of the test data 104, a report110 that includes the test data 104.

At block 906, the method may include generating, by the at least onehardware processor, based on an analysis of the report 110, a QR code116 that includes the report 110.

At block 908, the method may include generating, by the at least onehardware processor, a display 120 of the QR code 116 that includes thereport 110.

Referring to FIGS. 1-7 and 10, and particularly FIG. 10, for the blockdiagram 1000, the non-transitory computer readable medium 1002 mayinclude instructions 1006 to read, from the test device 106, the QR code116 displayed on the display 120 of the test device 106.

The processor 1004 may fetch, decode, and execute the instructions 1008to extract, from the QR code 116, the test data 104 obtained by the testdevice 106 for measurement of a parameter associated with the opticalfiber 108.

What has been described and illustrated herein is an example along withsome of its variations. The terms, descriptions and figures used hereinare set forth by way of illustration only and are not meant aslimitations. Many variations are possible within the spirit and scope ofthe subject matter, which is intended to be defined by the followingclaims—and their equivalents—in which all terms are meant in theirbroadest reasonable sense unless otherwise indicated.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system comprising: a test data analyzer,executed by at least one hardware processor, to obtain test data basedon operation of a test device to measure a parameter associated with anoptical fiber, and generate, based on an analysis of the test data, areport that includes the test data; a quick response (QR) codegenerator, executed by the at least one hardware processor, to compressthe report that includes the test data to generate a compressed report,and generate, based on an analysis of the compressed report, a QR codethat includes the compressed report; and a display generator, executedby the at least one hardware processor, to generate a display of the QRcode that includes the compressed report.
 2. The system according toclaim 1, wherein the test data is transmitted to a receiving devicebased on a scan of the QR code by the receiving device.
 3. The systemaccording to claim 1, wherein the test device is a power meter tomeasure the parameter associated with the optical fiber.
 4. The systemaccording to claim 1, wherein the test device is an optical time domainreflectometer (OTDR) to measure the parameter associated with theoptical fiber.
 5. The system according to claim 1, wherein the reportincludes a JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) report.
 6. The systemaccording to claim 1, wherein the QR code generator is executed by theat least one hardware processor to compress the report that includes thetest data to generate the compressed report by: formatting the report ina specified format for inclusion in the QR code.
 7. The system accordingto claim 6, wherein the QR code generator is executed by the at leastone hardware processor to format the report in the specified format forinclusion in the QR code by: compressing the report from a specifiednumber of bytes to a reduced number of bytes to generate the compressedreport; converting the compressed report to a specified base format togenerate a converted report; and generating the QR code based on theconverted report.
 8. The system according to claim 1, wherein the QRcode generator is executed by the at least one hardware processor togenerate, based on the analysis of the compressed report, the QR codethat includes the compressed report by: encrypting the test data in thecompressed report; and generating, based on the analysis of thecompressed report that includes the encrypted test data, the QR codethat includes the compressed report.
 9. A system comprising: a quickresponse (QR) code reader, executed by at least one hardware processor,to read, from a test device, a QR code displayed on a display of thetest device; and a test data extractor, executed by the at least onehardware processor, to extract, from the QR code, test data obtained bythe test device for measurement of a parameter associated with anoptical fiber.
 10. The system according to claim 9, wherein the testdata extractor is executed by the at least one hardware processor toextract, from the QR code, the test data obtained by the test device formeasurement of the parameter associated with the optical fiber by:decompressing the test data included in the QR code to generate adecompressed report that includes the test data.
 11. The systemaccording to claim 10, wherein the test data extractor is executed bythe at least one hardware processor to extract, from the QR code, thetest data obtained by the test device for measurement of the parameterassociated with the optical fiber by: decrypting the decompressed reportto extract the test data included in the QR code.
 12. A methodcomprising: obtaining, by at least one hardware processor, test databased on operation of a test device to measure a parameter associatedwith an optical fiber; generating, by the at least one hardwareprocessor, based on an analysis of the test data, a report that includesthe test data; generating, by the at least one hardware processor, basedon an analysis of the report, a quick response (QR) code that includesthe report; and generating, by the at least one hardware processor, adisplay of the QR code that includes the report.
 13. The methodaccording to claim 12, further comprising: compressing, by the at leastone hardware processor, the report that includes the test data togenerate a compressed report.
 14. The method according to claim 12,wherein the test data is transmitted to a receiving device based on ascan of the QR code by the receiving device.
 15. The method according toclaim 12, wherein the test device is a power meter to measure theparameter associated with the optical fiber.
 16. The method according toclaim 12, wherein the test device is an optical time domainreflectometer (OTDR) to measure the parameter associated with theoptical fiber.
 17. The method according to claim 12, wherein the reportincludes a JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) report.
 18. The methodaccording to claim 13, wherein compressing, by the at least one hardwareprocessor, the report that includes the test data to generate thecompressed report further comprises: formatting, by the at least onehardware processor, the report in a specified format for inclusion inthe OR code.
 19. The method according to claim 18, wherein formatting,by the at least one hardware processor, the report in the specifiedformat for inclusion in the QR code further comprises: compressing thereport from a specified number of bytes to a reduced number of bytes togenerate a compressed report; converting the compressed report to aspecified base format to generate a converted report; and generating theQR code based on the converted report.
 20. The method according to claim12, wherein generating, by the at least one hardware processor, based onthe analysis of the report, the OR code that includes the report furthercomprises: encrypting, by the at least one hardware processor, the testdata in the report; and generating, by the at least one hardwareprocessor, based on the analysis of the report that includes theencrypted test data, the QR code that includes the report.